No seriously I am…
I mean, my portfolio values keep going up, the birds sing wherever I roam and everywhere smells of roses! Ok ok, time for a spot of realism. I’m not a financial expert by any stretch, or even of average intelligence on the matter, but it’s fairly obvious even to me the markets generally have been on a tremendous bull run for quite some time now. Even a crap trader such as myself has managed to make a decent return so far (bar the odd big mistake), so the impression given currently is it’s an absolute doddle. You find a share, buy it, and hold for the inevitable rise in value. Easy peasy! “We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy when others are fearful” – Warren Buffet (of course) This is something I’ve become more and more conscious of in recent weeks. I keep seeing comments such as “this run still has more legs” and similar ilk. Whilst they may very much be right, I just have this niggling feeling. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly not fearful, not by a long stretch. I have my stops in place and keep a close eye on what I hold and am still actively looking for shares to buy. I do however hold a higher percentage of cash within my respective portfolios whereas previously I would pretty much be all in. Maybe this is also a subconscious change of tact having made mistakes previously. I no longer feel that just because I have spare funds, I simply must invest them somewhere. Perhaps a slight change in mind-set to a “less is more” approach. I definitely think that updating this personal investment blog more regularly is giving me a lot more focus, along with the determination that I can actually get somewhere with this, as explained in my “Master Plan” section. I was first given the idea to start this site by the Twitter user @Wheeliedealer who is someone I would certainly give a follow if indeed you are a Twitterer. He offers some very sage advice which is always worth paying attention to! Markets Please note I am not tipping any shares and would seriously encourage anyone reading this to carry out thorough research on any company they are thinking of buying!!!!!! As you may have guessed from the above, I’ve had rather a good week with my current holdings! Recent buy Robert Walters (RWA) released a trading update for its 3rd quarter which quoted Chief Executive Mr Walters “The board is therefore confident that profit before tax for the full year will be ahead of market expectations.” One of my favourite comments from a news release. The market certainly liked it also with the share price rocketing 10% on the same day. Its next trading update will be released on the 9th Jan ’18. Creightons (CRL) holds steadfast, up 30% on my buy price which suits me just fine. As mentioned last week I top sliced a bit of profits here. XL Media (XLM) continues to storms upwards and having announced the very reputable Jonas Maternsson as a non-Executive Director the price made a definitive break out from it’s steady upward trend. The price is now making a stab at 170p though has yet to move past it. I’m now up over 50% in my SIPP holding and up 17% in my ISA. Until next time… Ian
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A pretty short update this week I'm afraid, which I actually started writing up on Friday evening but ran out of time to publish! I got as far as writing out the markets section below but things have been pretty flat today so it still pretty much applies (apart from XL Media!). Well we managed to survive a wet and very windy weekend in Wales. In truth it was just what we needed though, despite the pretty bleak weather we still got out onto the beach each day to give the dogs a really good walk. This in turn made our afternoons very much recovery time, or nap time! We were all pretty much wiped out! A very enjoyable time was had by all though! This week see’s Mrs CT off to that there London for what is likely to be a couple of weeks as her big project moves into its business end and requires her attention at the weekend as well as the week. Obviously this means in her absence I hope to not cause some form of major catastrophe to home or self, I can’t promise anything though! Quite gutted I won’t get to see her for a while in all honesty but the benefit of working in similar fields means I understand the reasons behind it. I do look forward to less busy and stressful times for the hard worker of the household! In the football world, the Vale continue to prove themselves to be the worst in the country as we slumped to yet another home defeat! Despite taking the lead in the first half I could have easily predicted what was to come. We finally have a new manager in playing legend Neil Aspin, I sincerely hope it works out for him but my god has he got his work cut out. Before I tortured myself at Vale Park on Saturday I sat down and read my first full copy of Investors Chronicle, of which I’d signed up to a subscription earlier in the week. I’m more wary of picking up tips from anywhere really these days but had seen a quite a few serious investors I respect are regular readers and feel that so long as I thoroughly research anything that piques my interest then see no reason why it won’t be a good source to absorb from. Markets Please note I am not tipping any shares and would seriously encourage anyone reading this to carry out thorough research on any company they are thinking of buying!!!!!! Generally a bit flat across my portfolio’s this week once again which is fine by me, it means I’m not losing money for once! I haven’t seen a great deal that has jumped out at me as far as buying is concerned, though I did notice Robbie Burns picked up Numis (NUM) in his latest update which after a quick glance is worthy of a more in depth look, something I’ll look to do this week sometime! Creightons (CRL) pushed its 52 week high up a touch leaving me up 30% on my buy price. This is prone to largish moves up and down due to its fairly small market cap. This move up prompted me to do a bit of top slicing. This is something I’ve never done before so may have got it completely wrong, however felt it was a good time to de-risk probably my most volatile holding. Also its profit to market cap ratio had crept up above my usual threshold. I sold around a quarter of my shares banking some of those nice profits. It has also probably helped my confidence a bit as I haven’t banked a profit for some time now! Encouraging moves this week again from XL Media (XLM) as it too broke through its 52 week high point. As of today it is gone above the 150p mark which is a bit of a psychological barrier broken through. Unlike Creightons, XLM’s profit to market cap ratio is still within a decent range for my strategy so happy to leave as is. Currently 40% & 8% up on my buy prices across my SIPP and ISA respectively. Morgan Sindall (MGNS) has pushed up ever so slightly after recent good gains. I think slow and steady will win the race here, that’s certainly my impression anyway. That’s more than fine with me, nice and boring!! 9% & 6% up across my SIPP and ISA here. Until next time… Ian |
AuthorConfessions of a Crap Trader is a blog following a regular investor trying to make profit via the London Stock Exchange. Follow his journey as he attempts to hopefully one day pay his mortgage off in full! Archives
April 2018
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